If Conor McGregor doesn’t come back soon, the logjam at the top of the UFC’s lightweight division is going to get out of control.

On Friday, the promotion announced that No. 2 contender Khabib Nurmagomedov will be taking on No. 3-ranked Edson Barboza at UFC 219 on Dec. 30.

It’s a great fight, but one of these guys should be fighting for the title.

Keeping in mind that No. 1 contender Tony Ferguson is actually the interim champion while McGregor — who technically holds the 155-pound belt — hasn’t fought in the octagon since last November, and you can’t help but shake the feeling the division is ready to move on without the Irishman.

McGregor’s enormous star power means it’s unlikely the UFC strips him of his belt anytime soon. Yet, this is beginning to get ridiculous.

McGregor hasn’t defended the belt a single time since he beat Eddie Alvarez in late 2016, and it hasn’t been because of injuries. His inactivity is entirely because he has chosen not to step in the octagon, taking six months off while his girlfriend was pregnant — which is totally fair — and then chasing a big payday in the boxing ring for his sideshow fight against Floyd Mayweather.

In the meantime, the lightweight division has carried on. New stars have emerged, and the list of worthy contenders keeps growing.

Ferguson staked his claim to being the best lightweight in the world by beating Kevin Lee for the interim belt earlier this month.

When Barboza and Nurmagomedov face off, it will be between two guys with skill sets that would matchup incredibly well against the champion. They’re both deserving of title shots, and the fact that they’re fighting each other instead of either Ferguson or McGregor speaks volumes about the state of the division.

Lightweight is arguably the deepest division in the UFC, and guys like Ferguson, Nurmagomedov and Barboza are deserving of the opportunity to prove that they are the absolute best in their weight class.

Until McGregor returns, they won’t get that opportunity.

What a shame.

Khabib Nurmagomedov (Postmedia)

WHY NOT?

One of the dumbest combat sports storylines of 2017 appears to be coming to an end.

Unfortunately, it might be replaced by an even dumber one.

On Friday, UFC president Dana White spoke on the Real Quick with Mike Swick podcast and emphatically put to rest any rumours about McGregor stepping back into the boxing ring with Paulie Malignaggi, who helped him prepare for Mayweather before a stupidly public fallout.

Sensing a big payday, Malignaggi had been telling anyone in the media who would listen that he wanted to box McGregor, but White made it clear that Malignaggi might be the only person actually asking for that matchup.

“Do you think people really want to see Conor vs. Paulie Malignaggi?” White asked, as reported by MMAJunkie.com. “People want to see Conor fight in MMA. That’s what they want to see. The Mayweather fight was a one-off … This is where he belongs, this is the sport he’s in, this is the sports he excels in and this is where he’s a world champion.”

Malignaggi didn’t waste any time moving on. He took to Twitter to call out McGregor’s training partner, Artem Lobov, and the Russian responded quickly by saying he would give his purse to Malignaggi if the fight went the boxer’s way.

It’s all very stupid, and it’s hard to imagine a fight between Lobov and Malignaggi generating much interest outside of hardcore fight fans.

Hopefully, this is the last time we ever need to talk about any of this.

DEFENDING HIS GUY

As good a trash talker as Michael Bisping is, the UFC middleweight champion has struggled to come up with anything too hurtful to say about Georges St. Pierre.

The one thing that has sort of seemed to stick, though, has been Bisping’s half-hearted accusations of St. Pierre using steroids.

With the two set to square off for the middleweight belt next weekend at UFC 217 in New York, the UFC held a media day in Montreal and allowed St. Pierre’s head coach to respond.

“About 10-20% of the populations is naturally ripped, Georges just happens to be one of those people,” Firas Zahabi told MMAJunkie.com’s Mike Bohn. “You look at him as he was growing up, he’s just naturally ripped. He’s been tested, he’s volunteered to be tested, and he’s paid out of his own pocket to be tested and for his opponent to be tested.

“He’s never failed one single test. Just because someone’s lean and extremely competent in fighting doesn’t mean they’re on drugs. That’s the truth.”

It’s not like Zahabi was ever going to do anything other than defend his fighter, but the Montreal-based coach certainly has a point.

St. Pierre has faced accusations of steroid-use for most of his career and has gone to great lengths to prove that he’s clean.

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